While today isn't Towel Day, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams was published on October 12 in 1979 in the United Kingdom (and then in the United States the following year).

I read the book (well, the whole series), at a pretty young age and was fascinated by it. While knowing where one's towel is is a well-known reference, the other one I remember fondly is the answer to life, the universe and everything: 42.

Towards the end of the series, you get the answer 42 and Arthur (the last surviving man) gets the sentence "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"

"Six by nine. Forty two. That's it. That's all there is.I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe."

Of course, six by nine isn't 42. It's 54. The answer is wrong... or is it? Fans of the series came up with various explanations as to how it could be correct. For example, 610 × 910is actually 4213 (as 4 × 13 + 2 = 54, i.e. 54 in decimal is equal to 42 expressed in base 13), or that 42 is 101010 in binary, or even that light requires 10-42 seconds to cross the diameter of a proton. Granted, Douglas Adams ultimately chimed in with the truth:

"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story."

The random seed chosen to procedurally create the whole universe including all the regions, constellations, stars, planets, moons and mineral distribution of the online massively multi-player computer game EVE Online was chosen as 42 by its lead game designer.

The Allen Telescope Array, a radio telescope used by SETI, has 42 dishes in homage to the Answer.

In the TV show Lost, 42 is the last of the mysterious numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42.

On page 42 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry discovers he's a wizard.

The episode "42" of the science fiction television series Doctor Who was named in reference to the Answer and the episode lasted for 42 minutes.

In an episode of The Simpsons, police chief Wiggum wakes up to a question aimed at him and replies "42".

Long post made short, here's to Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which has touched a lot of lives!

I love the series, but did you know it was ORIGINALLY a BBC broadcast? It's true, even before the books were published, the series was a weekly 30 minute radio program on BBC radio. It's tons of fun to listen to. I have the CD's.

I love the series, but did you know it was ORIGINALLY a BBC broadcast? It's true, even before the books were published, the series was a weekly 30 minute radio program on BBC radio. It's tons of fun to listen to. I have the CD's.

and it was the most expensive series they had ever produced, being recorded in full stereo with effects even though it was originally to be broadcast in mono

I love the series, but did you know it was ORIGINALLY a BBC broadcast? It's true, even before the books were published, the series was a weekly 30 minute radio program on BBC radio. It's tons of fun to listen to. I have the CD's.

and it was the most expensive series they had ever produced, being recorded in full stereo with effects even though it was originally to be broadcast in mono

I love the series, but did you know it was ORIGINALLY a BBC broadcast? It's true, even before the books were published, the series was a weekly 30 minute radio program on BBC radio. It's tons of fun to listen to. I have the CD's.

and it was the most expensive series they had ever produced, being recorded in full stereo with effects even though it was originally to be broadcast in mono

And I listened to the original broadcast with stereo headphones. Really awesome. I even bought a second set and a splitter plug so that my brother and I could listen at the same time.